Glow: Monarch Lane


by Christine Phillips and Tania Davidge



LOCATION: MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA


What we should do with the left-over, un-used and abandoned spaces within our cities is an ongoing concern for architects and design practitioners.
GLOW: Monarch Lane explored this issue by re-imagining an everyday space; a laneway in St Kilda. It sought to seek the delightful within the mundane.


1. Glow: Monarch Lane | John Gollings


Located in Monarch Lane just off Acland Street in St Kilda, Melbourne, the light sculpture drew attention to the character and spatial qualities of the local urban environment.


2. Glow: Monarch Lane | John Gollings


GLOW created a new place from existing urban elements.  Drawing with light in Monarch Lane, GLOW traced the graffiti in the lane, the seams on the roadway and the pattern of the bricks. It turned an under-utilised laneway into a work of art.


3. Glow: Monarch Lane | John Gollings



GLOW created a conversation about the places in which we live. GLOW invited people to step inside and take notice of an everyday space they might otherwise pass by. It prompted and provoked people to think about the character of their local public spaces – what makes them liveable and how these places help to sustain community. It catalysed public conversation around the role of forgotten spaces in our city. Participants were drawn to the other worldliness of the project, a space of glowing enchantment, and reflected on the project’s ability to transform a lane that is often perceived as unsafe.